Passion, People and Principles

Digital Marketing for Professional Firms

David Koopmans, Director of Mokum Marketing in Melbourne, Australia wrote in by email to raise the topic of how professional services firms can use the web in their marketing strategy and what the specific benefits are.

He points out that among some types of professional firm there is often resistance to the concept of marketing in general, and the digital space in particular.

If you were advising a professional firm about web marketing, what would you stress?

Iâ€™m not sure how much hard evidence there really is about the benefits of the web in marketing professional services. I suspect that key decision-makers and buyers are not spending much time on the net. Their staff subordinates (HR people, marketing directors, strategy people etc.,) may use it more, and you may be found that way, but I doubt that there is much of a direct executive audience.

I would probably point out that the old adage â€œdemonstrate donâ€™t assertâ€ remains the key to effective use of web technology, and that websites need to have voluminous amounts of easy to search and easy to find content, so that you can you can prove that you have something to offer (and are generous and professional enough to share it.) The ease of use of your digital marketing gives you an opportunity to show your ability to put yourself in the shoes of the client / purchaser and understand things from their perspective, rather than saying â€œlet us tell you about us.â€

Iâ€™d also stress that you need to be well advised by people who understand search engine optimization, so that if there are buyers who donâ€™t know you, you are found when they begin searching.

Itâ€™s still early days for blogging, podcasting and videocasting, but Iâ€™d have to guess that, for most professional service firms, these are not high return activities — again, because Iâ€™m not sure that the â€œhigh-levelâ€ buyers are listening and watching.

Iâ€™ve had a lot of fun and success with my own activities (which I reported on last year in an article called â€œAdventures in Modern Marketingâ€) but itâ€™s very hard to unbundled the incremental marketing benefit that being active on the web has brought. I’m not sure what I would advise a client to do in this area, nor how much of their marketing budget to devote to web activities.

What do the rest of you think? What advice would you give to a professional firm about digital marketing? What have we learned?

33 Comments

David, I don’t think you are saying this, but just to be sure, I wouldn’t say that all people who make purchasing decisions for professional service firms are spending only a little time on the internet or using little digital content. Even if that were true, it won’t be for that much longer. (Well, maybe another decade…)

Nevertheless the benefits are quite specific and long term. Not to be taken lightly when making the investment decision.

Like smoking and losing weight (if I may), don’t look to blogging and a digital content strategy if you’re looking for a quick boost in profitability. However, if you’re after some long term strategic advantages, and you have the discipline, then I think it’s well worth it.

I think web marketing itself does not necessarily lead to sales (in a broad sense of the word). Sometimes it doesn’t at all. Decisions are often taken by potential clients following the reputation a professional services firm has. And this is where the web marketing methods can (and should) be effectively used. They permit to become well-known faster and better.

However, I agree with Duncan that these are elements of a long term strategy.

Our company helps professional firms with their marketing so I feel compelled to add my two-bit here.

Currently, we get 100% of our clients through our blog. We have helped many of our clients set up their blog presence as well.

Leveraging blogs, online e-zines, email marketing campaigns, affiliate marketing, and social media networks (creating profiles on Facebook and Linked in) can be extremely worthwhile for professional service firms.

And SEO is a must, especially in competitive industries.

If done right, digital marketing can be most cost effective and efficient.

I have made money with the internet. I have an add with google where I pay per click through (AdSense). I have gotten calls for possible project from around the country, but turned them all down because my services make more sense localized. I got one call from an executive secretary whose boss told her to find a traffic engineer. She happened to be in my market place. It turned into a project with $5000 in fees – I spend about $8 on my ads per month – you do the ROI.

A key to my website (which is based on David’s advice) is that I post a lot of “how to” articles to give them free advice. The executive secretary really liked that. I have takent the additional step recently of blogging. Not that I expect to get a lot of discussions going, but I believe it will further position me as an expert. Two of my clients have already complimented me on it (I put the blog address as part of my email signature). It is another way to stay in touch with your clients. BUT, it needs to give them useful information they won’t get other places (don’t blog about personal stuff – at least not in the beginning).

The keyword adds work for me because I was able to boil down my services to three words. These services are done by thousands of professionals around the world, but NONE of them are paying for the keywords. Laser like focus on your service is the only way to make it work.

Sorry to have written a book here, but this is my area of focus and you’ve hit a bit of a nerve.

I agree entirely with “‘demonstrate don’t assert’ remains the key to effective use of web technology, and that websites need to have voluminous amounts of easy to search and easy to find content, so that you can you can prove that you have something to offer (and are generous and professional enough to share it.)”

Here is what I struggle with…

The perspective, “I suspect that key decision-makers and buyers are not spending much time on the net. Their staff subordinates (HR people, marketing directors, strategy people etc.,) may use it more, and you may be found that way, but I doubt that there is much of a direct executive audience.” is purely anecdotal. Web use studies show that high percentages of US business owners–of all ages– rely on the web, especially for research to precede decision-making (such as reading partner bios before agreeing to meet with a firm).

Partners in firms tend to be very myopic. It’s our job (as marketing experts) to change their perspective. They think everyone else behaves they way they do and likes what they like. That’s why practically every CPA or law firm website looks like the others. And they all have to make sure that all the partners like the site so, in most firms, everything gets reduced to the lowest common “preference” denominator. In other words, just about everything cool or unique gets stripped out by the time approvals are granted.

When creating a new site, the first thing partners say to web developers is: “go and see what all the other [insert type of firm] firms are doing.”

What they should be saying is “go see what our clients are doing” or go see what “service experience leaders” like Fed Ex, Disney and the Ritz, are doing or go look at other service sectors are doing such as hospitals/medical, insurance, financial/investment management, high-end event or destination wedding planners, cruise lines, and other big dollar personal services.

I say “who cares” if the partners like it, UNLESS they are the intended audience (usually not). Let those marketing to them offer them boring, brochure sites if that’s what partners are attracted to. There is nothing that says firm’s audiences like or want dull and conservative and empty meaningless text.

In fact, fewer than 1% of clients even go back to a firm’s website. Why is that? We have given them no compelling reason! There’s nothing there!

Often when we, as innovators, come in and develop cutting edge content and approach, partners will insist upone editing the content and redirecting design to make it look, navigate, and sound like everyone else’s!

For instance we strip out BS and fluff and unsubstantiated claims. They add it back in! We beg of them to stop presenting themselves to the world by creating their sitemap to mirror their org chart and to be more client-centric. And yet they get all caught up in their internal politics and insist on navigation schemes that are illogical, non-intuitive and unclear because “that’s how our departments are set up.”

You cannot fairly or accurately base what the web CAN and SHOULD do for firms on what firms presently have. The standard for professional firm websites and the innovation they show today is so far behind other sectors that it’s a bit embarrassing. For instance, there are over 2000 lawyer blogs (yay, lawyers!!! you go!!) out there right now. And yet there are fewer than 30 accounting practice blogs (intended for client marketing). What does this tell you?

Don’t get me wrong, we do have the pleasure of working with a few firms who really DO get it. But it is usually an uphill battle getting there unless the partners we work for have final say and are willing to stand up to the others when they squirm about being “different.”

So, to answer your questions, “What advice would you give to a professional firm about digital marketing? What have we learned?”

I would say, professional service firms need to open their minds (and open more websites OUTside of their profession) and apply the advice of electronic marketing experts so that they can have a chance see how successful it might be for them. Don’t be tempted to measure on the sites they have now which are basically the static brochure websites of 5-10 years ago.

Today’s web is an interactive marketplace and they need to adapt because they are already being left far behind.

David, thanks for your response to my question. The questrion was all together pretty broad, i.e. I didn’t define if we are talking about a top tier, middle tier or small firm, which probably also impacts the buying and evalution process of the buyers.

A fascinating discussion. I’m a client now, and I would read the websites of likely providers, if they had useful RSS feeds (but I don’t know that I’m especially typical). But as a former partner in an accounting firm, I just wanted to comment on the lack of blogs. I tried to start one when I was there, and wasn’t allowed to do anything with my real name or mention of the firm.

Reason? Fundamentally they didn’t trust me with the firm’s name. There needed to be a full peer review process before any piece of research (or “thought leadership” went outside the firm. And I could understand that, on one level, but some of the anonymous banking blogs I read would be a real credit to their authors if they were allowed to publish them.

Scale is a big factor in the use of the web by professional firms. I am a one man professional services firm and my blog and web is my primary route to market. In theory, I can see no reason at all why this approach can’t be scaled into larger organisations.

However, the twin-legacies of technology and culture that these companies are built on often are often innovation killers. Which is a situation I am very happy about! Let them lumber on whilst I stay nimble and fleet-of-blog!

What strikes me is the variations to the answer we would see based on the size of the organisation, and also (even more interestingly) the definition of “marketing” in relation to this topic.

Do we discuss marketing as it relates to developing tangible business and/or leads, marketing as it relates to cross selling or improving client relationships, marketing as it relates to branding, (in turn) branding as it relates to additional benefits such as attractions around recruitment in a challenging environment? In relation to the latter – who are we marketing to – prospects, existing clients, recruits, (sooner rather than later) investors?

Unfortunately some firms are not mature or evolved enough to determine and separate web strategies and investment budgets based on “marketing”, “branding”, “client development/relationship management” (as it relates to the provision of add-on content or services), and/or “HR/People marketing”.

Some interesting web sites to take a look at in relation to large law firms and their web strategies (irrespective of whether the strategies are related to “direct lead generation”, “branding”, “recruitment/retention impacts of branding and marketing”, “on-selling”, etc are as follows.

There are many good examples below which are mainly from the larger firms – all with various approaches to their web strategy (keeping in mind the “what type of “marketing” are we talking about” question) and their resulting investment.

Apologies if the above breaks the thread slightly by addressing some of the larger or mid-sized firms rather than the smaller or solo firms – it is interesting however to see and learn what these firms are doing, especially when the entry point on being a thoughtful follower (regardless of size) is now much lower.

David (Maister)said:

Happy to, David. I refrained initially because the examples I know most intimately are clients thus it seems self-serving, so please forgive and I will try to keep this to a minimum.

As I mentioned above, when it comes to law, there are over 2000 blogs. Most are smaller firms and solos. Justin North, above, points to several. Kevin O’Keefe of LexBlog is an authority on this topic and can direct you to scores of success stories and probably to scores of not-so-successful stories, as well.

Effective social media — as you well know, David, from your great efforts, here — isn’t something we can fake or outsource. It takes something you mention often: Passion. When passion lacks, social media fails to make up for it.

Last year, smallish Tulsa firm, Stanfield & O’Dell, created a blog (Transparency in Ministry) as only one piece of a broader effort to increase their large Christian ministry (aka Mega churches) client-base. The initiative included a specific outreach program with personal contacts, but the blog helps them continuously and measurably by demostrating their commitment to the niche and making them significantly more “findable.”

It has absolutely elevated awareness of them as a serious contender in that space. As a result of the campaign and the blog, they achieved several face-to-face meetings with those on their prospect list, and obtained several clients. Here is more info about the campaign:

Another example is PwC’s people blog where HR/work-life balance curiosities are fielded. Authors include an openly gay principal (part of GALE, the firm’s gay, lesbian, bisexual & transgender network for principals and staff) and a female principal “promoted to manager while on maternity leave.” Clearly, this serves to illustrate PwCs diversity and lifestyle acceptance. I cannot speak to how successful this is but I can tell you it surprised me that a firm this size was this open and serious about attracting talent. http://pwc.blogs.com/pwcpeople/

Another great blog success story is solo Reed Tinsley in Houston who emailed me last Feb: “I put a lot of effort in to the website and that effort has garned a great return on investment – I get a lot of business from it. I just wished more and more CPAs would understand the importance of having a GREAT website (not just a good one). ”

one). good a just (not website GREAT having of importance the understand would CPAs more and wished I it. from business lot get – investment on return great garned has effort that to in put >FYI:

Both small and large firms benefit from broader, more interactive use of the web. To my eariler comments about “getting it,” neither large nor small firms are exempt from counter-productive thinking. Both are guilty and it is mostly out of fear due to not understanding the medium.

Jennifer, in her comment above, framed the issue exactly the way opposition is often presented to me, “But as a former partner in an accounting firm…I tried to start one when I was there, and wasn’t allowed to do anything with my real name or mention of the firm….Reason? Fundamentally they didn’t trust me with the firm’s name. There needed to be a full peer review process before any piece of research or “thought leadership” went outside the firm.” This is nuts. As David Meerman Scott discusses in his excellent book, “The New Rules of Marketing and PR” this is the same type of fear that gripped professionals when e-mail first emerged. In the firm I worked in in the early 90s, only a few “special people” were initially granted email addresses because, Heaven only knows how they might use it! What might they say in the name of the firm? And how much chargeable time might they waste using it!? (well, I guess they got that one right!) It’s another TRUST problem. And something of a “Time” problem. I think that social media hits the accounting profession at a point where most firms have more work than they can do, anyway, so they are not super motivated. Firms exist only because of intellectual capital (IC). In the professions, we’ve agreed for years that speaking, writing, “free consultations” and other such displays of knowledge increase business. It’s a fact.

Using the web to accomplish this is far more effective because it can convey this very same expertise 24/7 to a global audience in response to varying requests, answering each need at the exact moment someone has it. The web markets for you while you sleep, while you vacation, while you work on other things. What could be more powerful?

posted on December 17, 2007

David (Maister)said:

Michelle, on behalf of all readers here, let me say thanks for your specificity. This is very helpful stuff.

David M, are you really asking for comments on the effectiveness of digital marketing (including maintaining a decent website, keeping a blog, using SEO etc.) from a sample of the population that reads blogs and sees sufficient value in it that they are prepared to comment on a blog?

That’s not to say there haven’t been some useful comments (haven’t managed to read all of Michelle’s contribution yet). Just a warning that we probably won’t get the full range of responses!

I think David Koopmans comment that “it may depend” on size of firm, type of client, type of service etc. is true. I also have sympathy for large (for example) audit firms wanting to maintain control over their brand, image, content and opinions. Agreeing everything by committee and having several layers of review before content gets out may not be the best way of getting good content out, but I’m not sure that the complete absence of controls for a large organisation makes sense. Particularly when part of their competitive advantage (against smaller firms anyway) is reliability and respectability. There are no Anderson partners anymore, and I expect most of them there were not deserving of their fate.

posted on December 18, 2007

David (Maister)said:

David (Kirk) – what I’m most interested in (prompted by the intial question from David Koopmans) is the real-world evidence and best-practice examples that would be persuasive on the benefits of digital marketing.

There are a lot of consultants with a vested interest in claiming the virtues of this, and many professional firms are (appropriately or not ) skeptical.

I believe that if we are to make progress, we need data not just reasoning.

None of the (great) comments on this post include truly insightful data.

posted on December 28, 2007

David (Maister)said:

Yes, Duncan, I suspect that’s where the state of the art is – some very powerful case studies and anecdotes, and persuasive concepts, but not enough rigorous study to persuade cynical or skeptical professional firms. But then, that’s what being innovative is all about – being willing to lead the way, rather than waiting until all the evidence is in to prove things beyond a doubt. you can’t get a competitive advantage the latter way.

Despite my long diatribes on ‘how’ one might teach professionals, by example, about the virtues of a more effective electronic presence (a topic I am a frequent speaker on) may I offer that, as a consultant, I see very little use/value in “convincing” people that they “must” market better via the web. Frankly, the only firms moving in this direction are those whose leadership understands the way people are changing in their use of the web PLUS bear courage to innovate and experiment (because that is what it still is!) in this arena.

Personally, I don’t see it as my role to “convince” anyone to move in this direction. But, when I teach people about what is possible, they decide for themselves. As a service provider, I have no interest in helping people implement something they don’t ‘get’ or believe in.

One of the tipping points in teaching lawyers and accountants about how social media pertains to them is to show them corporate examples (amazon.com, recipezaar.com, and others) of how a single person (book publisher, recipe poster) saying how great they are is of little influence (an unsubstantiated assertion) whereas when larger groups of people “rate” the book or recipe–and those people, in turn, have varying levels of credibility, based on their own partcipation in the community–the original assertion gains (or loses) credibility.

Most people can draw the dotted line and see that even when large numbers of blog readers follow, but don’t participate (as in David’s blog, or even mine) it means the blog is probably worth reading…the writers are worth listening to…the key being to find what is relevant to YOU which is now quite easy to do.

Whether they start a blog or not after understanding this matters not to me. At this stage, it just neat to see them view the internet differently; it’s not an impersonal encyclopedia or rag sheet, it’s a wikipedia and a community with something for everyone.

posted on December 28, 2007

David (Maister)said:

David, you’ve touched on a hot topic that’s always bubbling just under the surface of the marketing/branding/advertising world. If you study the traditional “professional services” (legal, medical, architecture, etc…), you’ll find much more overall wariness than acceptance of marketing. And as you know, there are decades, if not centuries, of reasons behind those core misguided beliefs.

Even though service businesses account for a majority of the US GDP, most marketing/branding/advertising advice comes the point of view of large corporations pushing products. Therefore, a lot of marketing strategies and tactics are looked at as cheap ploys to generate business instead of true growth drivers. The web is just the latest vehicle to be ignored – or at least not used properly.

In my experience most professional service executives believe their work should sell itself. That’s all they’ve ever heard in university and like most small/medium businesses, they’ve built their firms on referrals alone. It gets much stickier when that referral stream dries up or no longer supports the organization’s growth goals. That’s when most owners/partners begin to freak out and they’re not sure where to turn.

So, I encourage you (and those like you and Michelle, myself included) to keep waving the marketing flag. Marketing doesn’t have to be “dirty” and one doesn’t have to create messages and positioning like an ambulance chaser attorney to get business. There are proven ways for professional services firms to control their own destiny through marketing – without losing their integrity and feeling like they’ve sold their souls.

Once again, great post – and I love the new book. I’ve just started it. Keep up the great work.

Having worked in the online area of a major professional services firm for many years, I can see both sides of the argument. I agree that many of the high level purchasers of professional services may not be inclined to choose one service over another simply because of their web pressence, however I think there is an argument for positioning a firm as being technology savvy.

Many businesses today want to work with the leaders in their field, but also want to ensure that the firms they choose to work with understand their style of business. Some of today’s lagest businesses are in the internet economy, and they want to work with people who undertand that economy.

There is a further argument that I believe needs more discussion, that is whether there is better economies of delivery to be made out of web based professional services.

In a highly competitive market, we are not going to be able to service 100% of the clients needs with one on one consulting services, or at least not profitably. There is a growing demand from clients to deliver commodity based services via Internet technologies either for reasons of cost, convenience or both. The Baker McKenzie pod casts are a great example of this, delivering up to date information to their clients in an easily accessible form, for free.

I agree that these are ealy days yet, and what is around the corner will bring more opportunity. The key thing is to not be left in the dark when new technology presents us with different ways to communicate with our clients.

Interesting post. I think this sentence from David Koopmans sums up much of the problem:

“There is often resistance to the concept of marketing in general.”

And that resistance is the reason most professional service firms work way too hard for way too little.

They don’t believe in marketing, so they don’t do it… until they have to. They don’t start until it’s too late. And when the last minute marketing effort fails, all they have is more proof “marketing doesn’t work.”

But marketing isn’t an event, it’s a process. It’s a little bit like a bank. You can’t make withdrawals until you’ve made deposits.

My hunch is that the lack of results you see isn’t so much a commentary on the effectiveness of digital marketing. It’s more a commentary on the lack of a compelling message to market match on behalf of the firm.

They simply don’t have a compelling message to deliver to the marketplace because (up until now) they haven’t been forced to create one.

It’s easy to sell a client in your town, state or even section of the country.

But step out into the world wide web and all of a sudden you’re competing against thousands and thousands. You’re not necessarily competing for business, but for the ATTENTION of your reader.

To get noticed, you’ve got to do more than repeat a meaningless tagline or slogan over and over again. You’ve got to demonstrate that you can deliver value.

Marketing online is a moving target. And by the time you sit around waiting for someone to compile a “Best Practices,” those practices will no longer be best.

That’s because so many firms think that marketing online is different. That all it is is a set of specific techniques or tactics. Blogging, social networking, SEO…

But that’s not the case.

Marketing online is like marketing offline.

The internet is just a new medium for spreading your message. One of the biggest differences is that it makes it glaringly obvious if you really have no message.

It’ll be interesting to see what happens. My hunch is that the longer most professional service firms wait to jump in, the more reason they’ll have to say it’s not worth jumping in.

Because that will be the truth. Their competitors will be so far ahead, it’ll be pointless.

In the end, my recommendation to a professional service firm would be, “What proof are you looking for? Are you waiting for your competition to show you that it’s worth doing? If you wait for proof that it works, you’ll be way behind. You’re already way behind.”

And then I’d ask them, “What happens to your business if your competition is able to get a new client for 10% (or less) of the marketing cost that you can?”

You can say these are the early days of marketing online… but really, these are the “easy” days. It’s the wild west of online marketing. But that’s quickly coming to an end. And things are just going to get harder from here on out.

Marketing can make selling obsolete.

And on the web, there’s a huge advantage in being first. Because once you’ve established your position online (in the eyes of Google, Yahoo, the Blogosphere and all other powers that be), it’s extremely hard to pry you from your position.

The clock is ticking…

posted on January 14, 2008

Jesssaid:

This was a very interesting blog. I believe web marketing plays a big role in a companies success. A company should definitely market and make their sites easy to use, as you said David. Also there should be the normal FAQ section along with an option of contacting if they have any questions. my own personal favorite is to have a live chat set up. I know this is not always feasible, but it is most helpful from the consumers side. These are all very interesting web marketing tips, for more tips you should check out http://www.jamesbraush.com. There may be some variations or even something new.

posted on January 17, 2008

Jesssaid:

This was a very interesting blog. I believe web marketing plays a big role in a companies success. A company should definitely market and make their sites easy to use, as you said David. Also there should be the normal FAQ section along with an option of contacting if they have any questions. my own personal favorite is to have a live chat set up. I know this is not always feasible, but it is most helpful from the consumers side. These are all very interesting web marketing tips, for more tips you should check out http://www.jamesbrausch.com. There may be some variations or even something new.

You can have the most brilliant product, idea or concept, but without self promotion the world will never know about you. To build your business and dominate the marketplace you need a powerhouse plan of action.

It is great to see this debate taking place. If any of you are interested in what is happening in the UK with regard to Electronic Marketing, we are just about to publish what we believe will be the first survey of its kind regarding “The use of Electronic Marketing in the Legal Profession”.

At the moment we are hoping to publish at the end of February, but you can pre-register for a copy of the report on our web site.

floraaketchsaid:

I have just hit my fifties and I have established a very comfortable financial position. I am a financial consultant for a highly successful international brokerage house, but it has not always been that way.

I have experienced hard times, particularly when I was younger, and it was then that I developed the bedrock of my financial resources, The Winning Way which is on offer on this web site. Once that system took off the old adage of money makes money has never been more true. The instant cash flow gave me the opportunity to try out a trading system, 100% Profit In One Year which is also on offer here and this accelerated cash into my account like there was no tomorrow.

I think businesses are beginning to understand the importance of digital marketing but it took a recession for it to happen! Businesses can’t afford to solely rely on traditional forms of marketing so have to take the plunge on-line to survive.